A collection of essays by women writers expressing thoughts about this pivotal time in life.
Midlife can be a time for many things but mainly it’s a spot along the way to reflect what has come and what will be next. Three writers share their thoughts with you in a humorous, yet deeply moving collection of essays.
The reason this collection exists on the Psych For Sport website is to bring together what could be construed as a ‘mission’ for moving forward with an illustration of reality – as it really is. Our Brain is our Greatest Natural Resource. Our Life is the Planet upon which these Resources are found!
Please enjoy!
“Midlife” – by Anna Weltman
It’s here!
Time for no more apologies… for not getting out of bed before 9
…for deciding not to pack the suitcase and go
…for choosing not to choose
for not taking the garbage out
for drinking more glasses of wine than I should
It’s here!
The period of life in which we share our deepest thoughts and have no fear of repercussion.
The time of bad results in our blood work and of running out of food after two days.
It’s okay not to have a plan
And then to suddenly jump on a train to the coast.
It comes as no shock that this is when we choose both to cling to those we love and to detach from them.
It’s a moment in time when our bodies sound the bells of despair and of excitement, and then we still choose to forget what we wanted five minutes ago.
This is the moment in life where we burn a few bridges and don’t care – when the people we loved most are no longer there.
Nothing can prepare us for this time – nothing can replace it.
I’m midway through life and have forgotten what number I was at, while counting the years and the wrinkles on my face.
I keep procuring sick plants to nurse to health and then realize I can’t afford the water bill anymore.
It’s been awhile since I’ve gone out for dinner – but I still have not gotten any thinner.
I’ll eat whatever I want and pay for it tomorrow – but tomorrow is already here.
And I still don’t know what I’ll be when I grow up.
Midlife is a point along the way to observe those who are not me – remember those not here – have compassion for those not happy. We have time to reflect; time to introspect.
But the really important thing about Midlife is recognizing that I’m neither here nor there – because we never know how long we have – so it’s impossible to decide on the middle – and without that point of reference, we never really know if we’ve grown up or grown old.
When I see those who live into their 90’s and 100’s, I wonder if they still understand what a baby is, or remember the time when they had a mother or a father.
We are midway to infinity. We can only try to find more peace, more comfort, more interesting stories. Stories we read, ponder, and forget.
If the tally of resources procured comes into play, we get our feelings hurt by comparing to others. If we try to be grateful, we might just realize that each day of our lives is just a day – and we lived through one day, over and over.
Why are we accumulating days? What for? As if they were all components of a very complex piece of engineered hardware – and only if analyzed as a group, do they make sense.
But really, each day is just a moment in time. Any subsequent moment can make a complete 180 degree turn from the previous one. Yet, they are also all the same – one a part of the other.
The prior, the next: all just figments of our silly imaginations. We have those imaginations to entertain us because life really is quite dull and monotonous. We are atoms, we have emotions, we go through life stages – it gets boring.
But examining Midlife allows for a story to come to light – a series of conclusions – that can either bring satisfaction or harm.
Being aware of this, I perceive Midlife as a place in time in the universe – stopped, spinning, and exploding – all at once.
We see evidence of all manner of outcomes when we stop to look around and ponder, but that only happens at midlife. Before that, we are much too wrapped up and busy “getting there”, and after that, we are no longer interested.
We only want that which feels good but of course, that’s not what we usually get!
People die, or they run out of money, or their loved ones run out of life, or they hunger for things they can’t seem to find.
At Midlife, you’re really only just going to live more, and love more, and struggle more, and suffer more, and go through another series of what you already went through, only with different chapter titles.
Falling asleep trying to ponder the “WHY”s of life, reaching for another short-term pleasure – whether an apple or a cigarette – recognizing that Midlife is a place to hang up your jacket but there are no hangers, no cupboard – and you are bare naked, anyway.
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